Our Painter’s Guide: Top Eco-friendly Painting Practices

Industrial coating contractors have a goal of making homes and/or facilities fresh and beautiful by brightening exteriors to make them look their best. But what about keeping our planet looking its best? To protect the beautiful blues and greens all across Mother Earth, the painting industry must focus on implementing eco-friendly painting practices. Businesses in the painting industry can commit help make their carbon footprints smaller by recycling, properly disposing unused products, and using renewable energy.

Safe Disposal of Unused Products After Job Completion

On a daily basis, the commercial painting industry often deals with the disposal of unused materials. Since paint lasts so long, it’s critical to our environment that those in the industry partake in eco-friendly painting practices by properly disposing of any unused paint. Rather than getting rid of the paint, however, we highly recommend donating it to agencies like the Habitat for Humanity. Agencies like the Habitat for Humanity can greatly benefit from receiving donations of paint to finish homes in construction. Another great benefit from donation is that no harm comes to the environment or nature, since no disposal is needed.

Industrial Coating Contractors Can Stay Green When They Clean

If the paint can’t be used by another organization like the Habitat for Humanity, then those in the painting industry can engage in another eco-friendly painting practice by disposing all of their remaining paint in municipal sewage systems. A municipal sewage system can ensure that the paint does not pollute the environment through a strong filtration process. Industrial coating contractors should make sure that employees are not washing latex brushes in customer’s yards with their hoses. These brushes should only be washed in sinks that are approved by the customers and those which have municipal sewage systems. In addition, independent coating contractors should ensure that solvent based materials are returned to their facility for proper, professional disposal by their crew.

Leaving a Smaller Carbon Footprint on Mother Earth

Companies that offer commercial painting services, like our team at Custom Coatings, can greatly reduce their carbon footprint by taking a few simple steps.

• Using renewable energy: Independent coating contractors who are environmentally aware, and who strive on taking eco-friendly painting practices, can also look at purchasing renewable energy for their facility. With the exception of four states, states in America have promotional incentives for renewable energy. Over a dozen states across America have developed legislation in recent years for renewable energy. Utilizing renewable energy is a strong move toward controlling climate change and expending less gas each day.
• Recycling: Another easy and eco-friendly panting practice you put into action is to simply recycle. In simple terms, the economy gets a boost from recycling. It just makes more sense to recycle materials that are already being utilized, rather than produce new ones. The end result is that the products made with recycled materials cost less – a great benefit to all. In addition, cities benefit by lowering their landfill expenses and getting a steady stream of income from sailing reclaimed materials.
• Limit work territories: Industrial coating contractors can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that is generated by their crew and/or sales teams by limiting and maximizing the work territories they cover. By serving their surrounding community and saving carbon dioxide emissions, they are also protecting their community.

There are a wide variety of actions and eco-friendly painting practices we can take on a day-to-day basis to reduce our carbon footprint while painting. If you have any questions about any other eco-friendly painting practices, or if you would like any assistance from our highly trained commercial and residential painting experts, contact us today at (828) 326-0953.